1181 Internship

Katia talks about her experience workind as an intern in the law community.

Todd: Some students might not know what an internship is. Can you explain what an internship is?

Katia: Yes. An internship is when a student goes to an NGO or a company to work but most of the time you receive a stipend or you do not get paid and the purpose for this is for the student to get experience working, to know exactly what it's like to work and when you're choosing an internship you want to choose an area that you like to learn about and to see if you really wanted to do that.

Todd: And you did an internship for five months?

Katia: For five months. It was an internship for five months.

Todd: Was it competitive to get the internship?

Katia: Very competitive and actually I didn't know that until I got it.

Todd: Really?

Katia: Yes and I'm glad I did not know otherwise I would feel the pressure but yes it was quite competitive I found out eventually.

Todd: So the internship's kind of a weird situation because in a way it's free labor for the companies and people want the internship because they want work experience. How did you feel doing an internship? Did you ever feel like you had to work maybe more than you should have or was it something you were very happy with?

Katia: Actually I was very happy with what I was getting. I was getting a lot of experience. I don't feel that I was working for free. I was getting a lot in return. I learned a lot so I think it really depends on where you do the internship, it's what matters. So, no, I was very happy to do the internship. It gave me a lot of experience and I realized what I wanted to do so it was worth it for me.

Todd: So what did you learn that you wanted to do?

Katia: Well before going to the internship, I liked law but I never worked nothing related with law so I wanted to experience, to know what it is and what you do and actually what does the work involve. So this was an NGO that dealt with human rights law so, yes, I realized after that yes this is what I want to do.